New data sources expand access to key information
Electronic info promises to make your job easier
Two new electronic database improvements may enable risk managers to obtain more accurate and useful data more quickly and easily than before.
Both improvements are intended to help risk managers obtain reliable information on past lawsuits and other risk management concerns, a need that has not been fully satisfied in the past. A major proposal by the Dorn Technology Group in Livonia, MI, is intended to standardize the recording and reporting of risk management information for health care and many other industries.
"The average risk manager is receiving data from all over, and there’s been a problem with some of the information not being all that accurate," explains Mark Dorn, president of the company selling data management software. "People are making important decisions based on the information they get from these sources, and if the information is wrong, they may have made a very bad decision for their hospital."
To standardize the data collection system for risk managers, and also to improve the quality of information used by the Dorn company and similar providers, Dorn developed an industrywide claims data standard. Called the DORN Property/Casualty Insurance Claims Data Files, the proposed standard is designed to facilitate claims processing via client-server computer systems.
The standard includes 320 fields covering virtually all data specifications needed to facilitate claims, payments, adjustments, adjuster status, and data conversions to Windows-based systems. The Dorn company came up with the standard fields by analyzing specifications used by a wide range of professional risk managers, carriers, brokers, and regulatory agencies.
Standard is available at cost
Dorn tells Healthcare Risk Management that the company developed the standard in an effort to speed up a formalization of the risk management industry’s data collection system that everyone agreed was necessary. The standards are being provided to various professional organizations for review, and 500 risk managers are being mailed free copies to sample.
In addition, any health care risk manager can obtain a copy on a diskette with supporting print materials for the Dorn company’s cost of materials and shipping, $19. At a later date, Dorn Technology Group will be selling one-year subscriptions to updates for $59. The files are available in both RTF/Help File and Microsoft Word 6.0 formats.
"The benefit is that this will allow risk managers to have common data specifications to apply to all lines of coverage," Dorn says. "That will allow you to control the data and the quality of the data."
Another improvement in data collection comes from ECRI, the nonprofit health care research agency in Plymouth Meeting, PA. ECRI has long offered risk management information services, but this year it introduced the only electronic database dedicated to health care risk management.
HRC Online is part of Healthcare Risk Control, a comprehensive risk management information system that includes a four-volume resource, monthly mailings, a bimonthly newsletter, and telephone consultation. With the addition of the on-line database, ECRI hopes to provide risk managers with a source for obtaining specific information very quickly and easily.
By logging into to the network, a user can enter a keyword related to the issue of concern and immediately receive a list of abstracts on that topic. The system provides the full citation in case the user needs to obtain the original article.
Sharon Bayless, manager of risk management services for ECRI, says the system is closely tailored to match the needs of health care risk managers. The database contains more than 50,000 citations and abstracts from literature on health care safety, malpractice, quality assurance, and risk management.
In addition, there are 600,000 reports on more than 5,000 devices concerning hazards, recalls, reported problems, device evaluations, comparisons, and technology assessments from the medical, legal, and technical literature. There also is a bulletin board where members can post questions, comments, and other information.
The system’s risk management file library contains hundreds of sample policies and procedures, the full text of laws and regulations, guidance documents, ECRI advisories, and similar information. In addition, users can use the system’s e-mail to send private messages to other members.
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